Konstantin Howard

About

I began playing the saxophone in fourth grade at my public elementary school. By the end of middle school, I decided that I would be playing for the rest of my life. In high school, I was introduced to jazz and it has been my passion ever since. Currently, I play in the Princeton Music Department's big band "Creative Large Ensemble" and its small combos. When I am home, I play with my longtime friends in a alternative rock band (the style is hard to pin down) called Hanoi Ragmen. We have performed at DC venues like DC9, Pearl Street Warehouse, Union Stage and Howard Theatre and released our debut album, The Oldlight, in 2022. Here, I plan to share solo transcriptions, arrangements, and maybe even some recordings of what I've been working on.

Upcoming Performances
• December 9 at Princeton - With Princeton's Creative Large Ensemble
• January 5 at Songbyrd in DC - With Hanoi Ragmen
• February 3 at Arlene's Grocery in NYC - With Hanoi Ragmen
• April 28 at Princeton - My senior recital

Check back for more Hanoi Ragmen shows this spring!

Transcriptions

The best way to learn improvisation is to transcribe and study the solos of the greats who came before. I always learn a solo in its entirety by ear first, and then sometimes commit it to writing. Here are some of the solos I have transcribed over the years, heavily biased towards alto saxophone. I have also put several of these on my YouTube.

Arrangements and Compositions

I have been wanting to arrange tunes for small groups and have a lot of ideas floating around. As I flesh them out, I will share them here. As for original compositions, I am taking a course on it this semester and am hoping to write a song for our next Hanoi Ragmen album.